Page 8 of Tainted Romance

“See you tonight, Allie.” I walked off leaving her standing there.

Chapter Four

ALLIE

Ever felt like you could barely breathe? Like your lungs were squeezing shut. At this moment as I sat across from Zane at the small restaurant table, I was having that feeling - my nerves were suffocating me.

“Are you going to eat, or just stare at the plate?” Zane spoke up.

I twirled my fork in the pasta. How could I eat when I was this nervous?

“Ok, well, I did want to eat my meal while it was hot but it looks like you aren’t going to eat until we get this over with.” Zane sighed, putting his knife and fork down.

How was he so calm while my heart was thumping outside my chest! Did he even care just how huge this whole thing was?

“You and I, well…. we are, umm…” He scratched the back of his neck. “Well, we’re mates.” He shifted uncomfortably. I take that back, he does know how huge this is.

While a part of my body was thrilled, another part, the larger part, was disgusted and was deciding if running was appropriate.

“Now that we have got the obvious out of the way, how about we move onto what the hell are we going to do?” I wasn't hiding my panic. The panic was clear in my voice and was clearly painted on my face.

My plan had always been to get out of here - to move away and never look back, and now…. he could lock me down here forever.

The amount of terror I felt couldn’t be explained.

“Well, what do you think we should do?” He gave me that look, which somehow knocked the air from my lungs. He slowly arched an eyebrow as I continued to stare at him.

“I think we should pretend this never happened,” I gushed; my words tumbling into each other and it was entirely his fault for looking so bloody good!

“Well, that isn’t going to work,” he scoffed, rolling his eyes and acting as if he had a better idea. “You know it won’t. We will end up fighting it, and then you will end up falling in love with me, and I’ll end up giving into my wolf, and before you know it, we will be as whipped as a married couple.”

I gulped. He just detailed my nightmare.

“So…” I swallowed sharply. “So, what do we do to stop it?”

“Come on, don’t you want to be madly in love with me?” He smirked, his eyes flickering with dangerous charm.

“Zane, you better have a plan.” I glared across at him. I would not fall for his charm.

“A plan?” He laughed. “I’m not a fucking spy or anything.”

“Great, we are doomed.” I dropped my head into my hands. I am doomed to fall in love with his stupid boyish grin, and then I’ll be stuck here - forever.

“Look, why don’t we just try and prolong this as much as possible?” Zane offered, watching me with an amused smirk. “At this point, nothing has to change. I don’t want to be with you, and you don’t want to be with me; however, wolf Zane thinks a hell of a lot of you, so he will want to be with you.”

With wide eyes, I just stared back at him.

“So why don’t we just try and be friends. You know the saying, happy wolf, happy life.” Zane smirked at me, taking a gulp of his water. “So, what do you think?”

“Friends, you and I?” I snapped myself out of the shock.

“Yeah, we can catch a movie sometime or tea, or just hang out at school or something. Look, I’m not going to lie and say I want to do this, but we don’t get a choice.” He sighed frustrated and ran a hand through his hair. “This way we can still do what we want. I can still keep, you know, seeing people, and um, you…” He threw a hand out at me, suddenly looking very awkward. “You can still keep seeing people too.”

He suddenly looked nervous and was watching me with caution. What was he waiting for, me to come across and attack him?

“Ok.” I nodded my head. “That sounds good.” I slowly smiled at him.

“Really?” His eyebrows furrowed together. “Wasn’t expecting that,” he muttered to himself.

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